Thirteen

Thirteen years.

It seems only yesterday I sat in the dentist office listening to the radio world changing.

It seems an eternity ago I watched the end and beginning of an era.

Thirteen years, and where are we?

In high school we joked George Bush had declared war on a nation of mud huts. How naïve.

Did we learn nothing from history – from the Russians, the British, the Ottomans? The Middle East will not be tamed – go ask Crassus about Parthia.

Pyrrhus has nothing on us. We are the sinner and the saint, and whether we stay or leave the cauldron of conflict continues to boil.

Blame whomever you want: Obama, G. W. Bush, Cheney, Clinton, G. Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon.

None of them started it.

None of them finished it – or could even if they tried.

 

Instead of blame, we must ask the question:

Thirteen years from now, where will we be?